This invention relates to electrical structural wiring elements including armored cables. Armored cables typically include a metal sheath enclosing one or more individually insulated conductors. The sheath may be formed of a helically interlocked continuous strip of metal, or of smooth or corrugated continuous metal tubing. The construction of an armored cable sheath is well known in the art.
Armored cable is used in wiring homes and commercial buildings. During installation, appropriate lengths of armored cable are cut from a main supply (e.g., a spool, coil, or reel) and pulled or routed through the walls and ceilings of the building.
It is desirable in certain applications to maintain an uninterrupted conductive path along the metal sheath from one end of the cable to the other. During installation, each end of the armored cable is typically connected to a metal terminal box using a metal connector or a plastic connector with a metal pathway that connects the armor to the box. The metal of the connector touches both the exterior of the metal sheath and the terminal box, and thus provides an electrical path from sheath to ground.
Armored cable permits orderly wiring for various applications within a building (e.g., fire protection devices, healthcare, lighting). For example, wires of different sizes serving different applications may be grouped within different armored cables. Because the cables typically are installed near to each other, and because the cables look identical or similar, it is difficult to distinguish the different cables which serve different applications.
There is therefore a need for a visually distinctive guise for armored cable sheaths. With a visually distinctive guise, one would be able to distinguish certain wires from others by visual indicia. However, in applicable circumstances, the visual indicia must not jeopardize the desired conductivity characteristics of the sheath such that the sheath may still be used to ground voltage.
Visually distinctive armored cables have great application during urgent scenarios where time is of the essence; for example a building fire. One could easily determine the purpose of each armored cable and act accordingly without the need to electrically probe each wire or check schematics/building blueprints.
Examples of identifiable armored cables are available in prior art, however they are subject to a number of deficiencies. In some applications, they do not maintain desired conductivity characteristics as the entire armored sheath is applied with visual indicia with no exposed metal to allow for electrical grounding. Another deficiency, seen in separate prior art, is that the interval used for visual indicia is not consistent throughout the entire length of the cable. This becomes significant in scenarios where walls are breached to gain access to the armored cables; at the specific breach of the wall, there may not be any visual indicia to identify the type of cable as the identification is not consistent at every point along the cable.
With these deficiencies in mind, it is apparent that there is a need, not just for visually distinctive armored cable sheaths, but visually distinctive armored cable sheaths which have consistent indicia throughout the length of the cable, maintain conductivity, and add visual indicia efficiently.
This background information is provided to reveal information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present invention. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present invention.